#57. Elaine Blass's Chocolate Chip Cookies

For my last cookie recipe, I decided to come full circle and honor the person who taught me how to make cookies in the first place and the cookie recipe that launched my fascination with round baked goods.

Ingredients

• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

• 1 cup brown sugar

• 1/4 cup white sugar

• 2 eggs

• 2 tsp vanilla extract

• 2 1/4 cups flour

• 1 tsp baking soda

• 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips, preferably Toll House

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.

2. In a large bowl, cream butter, browner sugar, and white sugar using a hand-held mixer.

3. Add in eggs, then vanilla extract. Set aside.

4. In a separate bowl, combine flour and baking soda.

5. Gradually beat in dry ingredient mixture into wet ingredients.

6. Using a spatula, add in chocolate chips.

7. Form dough into spheres roughly 1 inch in diameter. Line evenly spaced on sheets.

8. Bake for until just brown on top and mushy on inside.

9. Remember to save beaters with extra dough to lick alongside cookies.

#33. Pecan Sandies: Typos Can Still Be Tasty

WHAT. THE. FUCK.

STELLA!!!!!!!!!!!!, I yelped to no one in particular. Flash back to this past weekend, when I attempted to make pecan sandies using (Stella) Parks’ Bravetart, the newest addition to my out-of-control cookbook collection.

Although my mom, as I have oft noted, made some killer chocolate chip cookies, she also wasn’t adverse to purchasing packaged cookies, especially those vended by the playful Keebler Elves, whose treehouse villa just has to exist somewhere. #dreambig

And despite the fact that I generally loathe nuts in cookies, I have many fond memories of nibbling on Pecan Sandies while reading L.M. Montgomery. Something about the shortbread studded with buttery bits of hickory nut felt appropriate for tales of Anne and Avonlea.

Thus, homemade pecan sandies seemed the perfect way to break in Bravetart, but for some reason what I removed from the oven after following the directions in painstaking fashion resembled pancakes more than cookies.

My husband did not believe me. “You have to have messed up something with the ingredients.” I stuck to my story about following the recipe.

It turns out, we were both right. Yes, I adhered to every last detail of recipe, and in so doing, I unwittingly added too much butter because there was an error in the text! And that’s not fake news.

A Lovely Birthday Gift From My Dear Friend Alicia.

Rather than waste what remained of the batter (out of habit, I test half-batches at a time), I winged it with regards to a solution by adding more flour to balance the fat. What emerged in Round Two wasn’t a complete failure, i.e., not a flapjack.

The best bakers annotate their cookbooks with notes and tips based on past experiences, and I have already put a big strike-through on the specification for 1.5 sticks of butter (correct amount: 1.25) in the pecan sandies recipe.

And, Stella, dear, we all make mistakes. You’re still my hero.